Sunday, May 13, 2007

I knew I wanted to wear the Marfy dress to church today, so I had a little work to do last night. I noticed that when I tried on the dress for the first set of pictures that the lace was sticking out since I only sewed it above and below the ribbon. The top of the lace is supposed to be loose and gathered, but it was falling out and creating width - which I certainly don't need! I hand tacked it down about 1/2 inch down from the top and it made a big difference. It looks much neater now and slimmer. I really love this dress and jacket and got lots of compliments today.

Yesterday I finished another item for my swap - the silk dupioni top. You cant'really tell in the photos, but it is a beautiful teal with purple. I'm glad I switched to the tank pattern. It is loose and flowey and shows off the fabric. The top is a little big in the shoulders. I guess I'm going to have to start cutting an 8 in the shoulders instead of a 10, which is already 2-3 sizes smaller than my hip measurement! The only thing I worry about in cutting an 8 is that the arms and sleeves may be too small. I will have to look up narrow shoulder or narrow upper back adjustments.

These are the books I use most often for fitting and alterations. I really like Nancy Zeimans pivot and slide method. It just makes sense and is the easiest to do. I use Fast Fit for princess seam adjustments and smaller details such as her "full thigh" adjustment. I have only had FFRP for a few weeks and haven't read through all of it yet. I'm sure it will be a great resource as I see it mentioned quite a bit on PR.

I have more dress pictures

Also, I'm making some changes to my swap - but I'll post those later. Oh, I almost forgot - I added a photo tutorial on making french seams (see sidebar under tips)

May I ask one question on the books you show? Is the FBA method in Nancy Ziemans book very different from the way described in Fast Fit? The last book I have, but am still doubting whether it is worthwhile to buy the other book.